Commuters in Delhi and Mumbai can now use NAVTEQ Traffic Pro, a real-time traffic information service launched in the two cities by the Nokia owned traffic and location service company, NAVTEQ. With this service, about 26 million users in Delhi and Mumbai can access real time traffic information like traffic speeds on motorways, main and secondary roads, accurate estimated arrival times, along with an in-car navigation system.

The company claims to acquire all this data from various sources, and analyses them using commercial and consumer probe data, its fixed proprietary sensor network, event-based data collected from government sources, and historical traffic records. The latest commercially released version of NAVTEQ map of India is now available in more than 2,200 cities of India, covering 6.47 million points of interest across 1.19 million km of the national road network.

Although the service has already been launched, a look at the NAVTEQ updated map or even the online version yielded no traffic details despite there being a colour code to measure traffic. It could be because the feature isn’t available on the free apps or hasn’t been implemented yet, according to Medianama.com.

NAVTEQ has several competitors in the market, MapmyIndia being one of them. However, while MapmyIndia offers real time traffic information only online, unlike the new NAVTEQ Traffic Pro. Apart from this small point of difference, both are available on in-car navigation systems, integrated with navigation apps through providers such as Sygic and Nav4D for iOS and Android devices, and cost around $49.99. Nokia is a step ahead in offering free Nokia maps on its Symbian and Windows Phone powered phones.

The real time traffic information can really help save commuter time and serve for the better good of these cities, however its actual practicality and implementation depends on perfect accuracy as well as keeping in mind that in a city like Delhi, a faulty traffic signal to an accident could cause traffic jams, drastically changing the situation and may leave those who depend on maps transfixed at the last moment.